News

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is one of the leading causes of severe respiratory infections in young children. In France, bronchiolitis is estimated to affect nearly 30% of infants under 2 years of age, representing around 480,000 cases per year, including 35,000 hospitalizations each winter. Two studies conducted in mainland France by Santé publique France during the 2023–2024 winter season confirmed the real-world effectiveness of #nirsevimab (BEYFORTUS®; Sanofi/AstraZeneca) in prevent...

We are proud to announce that ANTIVIRESPIR is one of the 9 excellence projects selected by an international expert panel as part of the 2024 PEPR MIE Call for Projects, and approved for funding by the General Secretariat for Investment, following a decision by the Prime Minister. The ANTIVIRESPIR project aims to significantly scale up the national infrastructure #Virocrib (@CNRS Biology) by partnering with the #GAVO consortium (Generation of Original Antivirals, @CNRS Chemistry) and the ChemBioF...

Our mini-review entitled « In vitro models to study viral-induced asthma exacerbation: a short review for a key issue » has been published in Frontiers In Allergy !Asthma is a major health problem worldwide, which can be associated with morbidity and mortality. Respiratory viral infections are one of the most important causes of asthma exacerbation, but the underlying virus-induced mechanisms are incompletely described.To meet this urgent need and develop new efficient therapies, it is neces...

Successful collaboration with Epithelix in the characterization of AlveolAir™, a new primary 3D human alveolar model designed to advance respiratory virus research and antiviral development.The study described an innovative in vitro alveolar co-culture system at the air–liquid interface, developed by Epithelix, which maintains human primary alveolar type I and II epithelial and endothelial cells with a functional barrier for over 30 days.We characterized AlveolAir™ as a relevant system for...

Our study "Host-targeted repurposed diltiazem enhances the antiviral activity of direct acting antivirals against Influenza A virus and SARSCOV2" has been published in Antiviral Research.Influenza and SARSCoV2 infections are major public health threat with recurrent emergence and dissemination of variant strains carrying mutations resulting in suboptimal vaccine protection and/or reduced efficacy of current limited therapeutic arsenal. In this context, host-targeted approaches constitute a promi...

We are pleased to announce the recruitment of David Simarro González as joint PhD student co-financed by Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs - A*STAR IDL.After a 4-month internship at the La Fe Health Research Institute | IIS La Fe during his BSc degree in Biology, David obtained a MSc degree in Virology from the Universitat de València, including an 8-month internship at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology i2sysbio working on new vaccine strategies...

RESPIVIR and its technological platform Virnext conduct collaborative and interdisciplinary research aimed at developing and validating, across a continuum of preclinical in vitro and in vivo models, new prophylactic and therapeutic strategies against emerging and re-emerging respiratory viral infections. In the latest issue (#63) of the INSERM magazine, the article by Pascal Nguyên highlights the translational research of our international joint laboratory RESPIVIR (France–Canada), as well a...

Virnext was pleased to attend the BioFIT Event 2024. The event provided a great opportunity to present our expertise in emerging and re-emerging respiratory viruses, as well as our continuum of in vitro and in vivo preclinical models of infection. We had valuable discussions with many professionals about how we can support their research and development projects. During the event, we highlighted our key services: Production of high-quality, characterized viruses and viral vaccine antig...

This invention relates to a proprietary recombinant metapneumovirus strain we engineered as a versatile Live-Attenuated Viral vaccine platform that can express several antigens of interest.  METAVAC® patent was exclusively licensed worldwide to Vaxxel, a spin-off from the International Research Laboratory #RESPIVIR France – Canada. Based on the METAVAC® technology, Vaxxel is developing the first intranasal bivalent vaccine candidate against human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and hum...

Emilie Laurent, Virnext research engineer, and Aurélien Traversier, Virnext assistant engineer, have been awarded the “Cristal collectif” by the CNRS for their major contributions to the Virocrib national infrastructure (https://www.virocrib.fr/) dedicated to the screening of antiviral molecules. The collective crystal award distinguishes teams of research support staff who have carried out projects whose technical mastery, collective dimension, applications, innovation and influence are...